Democracy

The word democracy (minzhu) has meant many things for many people in China. It was
the main element of sloganeering in 1989, observed by the
student protesters more in its breach than its application.

Democracy has been at the center of ideological debates on
and off since the turn of the century. It covers a range of
meanings--free speech, representative government, the right
to oppose the status quo, rebellion, and so on. It holds
out a promise that has yet to be realized on Mainland
China, although in recent years in Taiwan, in particular in
1996, democracy has found an increasingly practical
application.

Here is what Liu Xiaobo, a university teacher and a leading
activist in 1989 who features in THE GATE OF HEAVENLY
PEACE, had to say at the beginning of the student
protests:

...although Chinese intellectuals can
grasp the theory of democracy, when it comes to its
practical application they are at a complete loss... In
China, the democracy movement is strong on sloganeering
but weak on practical implementation. Chinese
intellectuals are full of sound and fury but lack the
patience required for detailed and concrete work. There
is something very old hat about the present large-scale
student movement. Chinese university students have been
using the same methods to agitate for democracy since
1919: mass demonstrations. They're spontaneous and very
exciting for a while, but they invariably peter out. The
students lack creativity. In China, people have been
shouting slogans about democracy for nearly a century,
but no actual progress has been made towards the
realization of it for the last seventy years. Surely,
this is food for thought.

It's not that I oppose the radical actions of the
students; I support them whole-heartedly. But they should
be more patient and rational. In their efforts to find
practical ways of implementing democratic methods and
processes they should use concrete and pluralistic
methods that actually get results.